


what is grief, if not love persevering?

by sergeantbucky



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Afterlife, Angst, Bittersweet Ending, Canon Divergence - Post-Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Character Death, F/M, Grief/Mourning, Harry Potter Epilogue What Epilogue | EWE, Hermione Granger & Harry Potter Friendship, Hurt Hermione Granger, Post-Battle of Hogwarts, Post-War, Redeemed Draco Malfoy, Reunions, Revenge, Sad with a Happy Ending, Secret Relationship, Wakes & Funerals, minor dark hermione but in reality she's just tired and angry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-11
Updated: 2021-03-11
Packaged: 2021-03-17 00:56:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,724
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29833584
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sergeantbucky/pseuds/sergeantbucky
Summary: Hermione Granger lost the love of her life, and she won't rest until the culprit pays for it."I've been waiting for you.""Is this real?" her trembling hands tentatively reached for his face."Nothing is more real", he smiled.
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Draco Malfoy
Comments: 2
Kudos: 3





	what is grief, if not love persevering?

**Author's Note:**

> This was majorly inspired by my own crazy mind, who insists on creating impossible scenarios between me and the one I love and lost. Put that and Dramione together, adding just a little bit of WandaVision & Reign, and ta-dah!
> 
> Disclaimer: All the rights regarding the characters and the universe of Harry Potter belong to JK Rowling & Warner Bros. This is a non-profitable work, borne from the depths of my obsessive mind, which couldn't leave this plot bunny alone.
> 
> English is my second language and this is not beta'ed, so all eventual mistakes are inexcusably and entirely mine.

"Her absence is like the sky, spread over everything." ― _C.S. Lewis_ , A Grief Observed

**~*~**

_May 3rd, 1998_

"Hermione, would you like to say a few words?"

Harry Potter gently nudged his best friend shoulder, looking worried. Her eyes were glazed over and looking at nowhere in particular, seemingly like her very soul was anywhere but there. "Hermione?"

"Yes," she gulped, recomposing so fast that nobody who wasn't paying very close attention could notice her change of state. "Yes, I will speak."

She slowly but surely walked to the podium, both hands clutching onto the crumpled piece of parchment. With trembling lips, she held her head high and looked into the hundreds of pairs of eyes looking back at her, all tired and sad; none of that was for the man whose body currently laid in an ornate jet-black coffin, not 10 feet from her. 

"Draco Malfoy gave his life so we could live ours, we couldn't have won this war without his valued help," she started, reading from the splayed-out parchment she wrote and re-wrote for the past twelve hours. "For years, he risked his own life, giving us valuable information and going on missions for the Order. Draco Malfoy was...", she cleared her throat. Her eyes were blurring at the edges, tears threatening to finally fall out. "Draco Malfoy was..."

A sob crawled its way out of Hermione's throat. Shaking her head, she crumpled the parchment all over again, her knuckles white from grasping it so tightly. 

"Draco was _so_ much more than you'll ever know," she bit out. "He was kind, and loving, and smart, and strong. You may know him as the arrogant, prejudiced child he was years ago, but you don't truly know him. Now you know this bit of information about him, you use it to forgive him, you tell yourself you're suffering for his loss, the loss of a redeemed Death Eater because, maybe, he wasn't so bad. You assume things about him, throw supposed facts here and there, but none of you will ever the real Draco Malfoy. But _I do_. I _did_."

Terrified faces looked at the Golden Girl. Hermione Granger, who was bullied by Draco Malfoy for years on end. Hermione Granger, who now stood before them completely and utterly broken, _for him_.

All the light had left her; she wasn't golden anymore.

"I watched him changing from that scared and coward little boy to this amazing, _wonderful_ man. He wouldn't always tell you how much he cared for you, instead he would show you. He would protect you and worry about you and hold you close in each and every stolen moment in the middle of a blasting war. He was _brilliant_ , it was true."

"So, don't pretend you're grieving for him when you're most definitely not," Hermione brushed a lone tear from her cheek, trying to look at the silent and stunned crowd through blurred eyes. "You won't miss him, but _I will_. I will grief _every single day_ , for the rest of my life. And, truly," she smiled bitterly, "what is grief, if not love persevering?"

Tears now falling freely from her eyes, she ran, not sparing a single glance back at the wizards and witches there, nor at her best friends, who called after her.

She ran, and ran, and ran. She ran until her lungs burned and her knees gave out. She ran into the dark of the night.

And then she cried.

For the rest of her days, she cried.

**~*~**

_July 1st, 2004_

The muggle appliance didn’t have to ring twice for Harry Potter to pick it up — he was already impatiently pacing around the phone table for hours, anyway.

“Hermione?” he rushed out, but all he could hear back was heavy breathing. “Hermione, is that you?”

“I found him", she finally said, so low Harry almost couldn't hear it.

"What?"

"Dolohov," she repeated. "I found him. In America."

For a moment, it was dead silent.

"Listen to me," Harry started, his hands clammy and trembling. "Hermione, don't do this. If you do this, I can't protect you. If you do this, they will...they will—"

"I know," she cut in.

"Do you really think that this is what Malfoy would have wanted for you?" he blurted out, not knowing what else to say to dissuade her from that cruel faith.

"Draco is dead," she seethed. "He wants nothing, because Dolohov has killed him."

A second or two passed and, for a moment, Harry thought Hermione could hear the sound of his beating heart, loud and fast.

"I've made my decision, Harry," she sighed, her voice softer. "You couldn't stop me by now, anyway. You do know this, don't you?"

By the time he got to America, he would be too late. He knew. That was why he was still there, gripping the phone like his life depended on it. In a way, he thought it did.

"I do."

A minute, maybe two, passed in silence. For Harry, it felt like hours. 

"Did you really see them?" Hermione whispered. He could tell she was crying. "Years ago, when you went to the forest. Did you really see your family?"

There was nothing else he could say or do to stop her, the best he could do was to give her the truth — to give her the comfort he knew she needed. "Yes," a stubborn tear fell from his eyes. "Yes, Hermione, I did."

He knew it was enough. The hope of it — it was enough for her, because the next time she spoke, he knew it would be the last.

"I only called to say goodbye," she breathed. "Tell your boys, Ron, Ginny... tell our friends I love them."

"Hermione, wait—"

"Goodbye, Harry. I love you."

But by the time he replied "I love you, too", it was too late.

Hermione was already gone. And, this time, he knew she was gone for good.

**~*~**

_July 22nd, 2004_

"This is execution number #3370, carried by the Magical Congress of the United States of America against Hermione Jean Granger. She is accused of torturing and murdering Antonin Dolohov with the use of Dark Magic and Unforgivables. Miss Granger denied all requests from her friends and family to be here today. Is that right?"

"Yes, sir," she heard her appointed lawyer saying. "Even with my best efforts, Miss Granger decided she wishes to be alone at this time." 

"Very well, then," she finally looked at the Minister for the first time since walking through the heavy doors of the Ministry earlier that day; all she could see was pity, written all over his face. He was probably thinking how a war heroine like her got to that point, but Hermione Granger was not a war heroine. She hadn't been for a long time.

"The settled penalty was capital punishment by beheading. You can carry on with its execution."

Sparing her executioner trouble, Hermione purpusedly walked to the scaffold. She sat down on her knees, facing the block for a moment before fully lowering her head into it.

"Any last words, Miss Granger?"

Hermione gripped the ring that hanged in a string around her neck; the House of Black wedding ring. The ring Narcissa Malfoy gave her, all those years ago. The ring _Draco_ was supposed to give her as soon as the war was over.

"Draco, I'm sorry," she whispered. A single tear was falling from her closed eyes. "I love you." 

Just like in third year, she heard the sound of an axe being wielded. Only it sounded so much closer this time.

Clutching her necklace to her heart, she waited.

For a moment, it was all dark. Then, it suddenly wasn't.

**~*~**

Her body was light and relaxed, it felt just like waking up from the worst nightmare. For a second, she thought she was safely tucked in her bed back in Gryffindor Tower, dreaming. Then, she heard him — faintly, but still.

"Hermione?" his voice was just above a whisper but, nonetheless, it sounded exactly as she remembered it. "Hermione?"

She slowly opened her eyes, blinking at the blinding lights of the day. The sky had never looked so blue. 

She rolled to her left, and there he was. His white-blond hair almost as bright as the light of the sun; his silver eyes were shining and vulnerable, and the most beautiful smile crept across his face. A true, with lots of teeth, smile; the one she only got to see once or twice on him.

"Draco," she smiled, completely dazed. Gone was the tension and the frown lines that blemished his face from 6th year on. Laid by her side, with nothing but sheets to cover his now unscathed chest, he looked so much younger. _Truly_ young, how it was supposed to be.

"I've been waiting for you."

"Is this real?" her trembling hands tentatively reached for his face.

"Nothing is more real", he muttered, covering her hands with his.

"I love you," he said. "I always have."

Hermione beamed. She could feel his skin, hear the beating of his heart, smell him. He was truly there, with her. "I love you, too."

"It's been so difficult, Draco," she breathed, holding her tears down. "So difficult."

"That's over now," he brought her closer to him, holding her tight, just like he used to do after they came back from missions; whispering sweet nothings and _mine_ all over her body. "You're here, with me."

He brought his lips down to hers, closing all the distance left between them. His lips felt even gentler than she remembered as he deeply kissed all her sadness away. She didn't know for how long he kissed her, drinking all her sighs and tears, making her feel safe and loved. When they finally separated, the way he was looking at her held all kinds of promises.

Sitting on the bed, the sun reflecting on his alabaster skin, making him look like an angel, he held out his hand to her. A smug smirk she knew all too well was playing on his lips. "You coming?"

For the first time in more than 6 years, a real, bright smile crept across Hermione Granger face. She reached for his hand.

_We have been given a miraculous second chance. I won't waste it. Not a minute of it._

**Author's Note:**

> I honestly don't know what this is or where it came from. Let me know what you guys think of it. And, please, no hate comments. I'll delete all of those, anyway.
> 
> Excerpts from Reign (series finale and 3x05) and WandaVision (1x08).


End file.
